The design of passively athermalized narrow- and wide-field-of-view infrared objectives for the OBSERVER unmanned air vehicle

Richard C. Simmons; Paul A. Manning; Trevor V. Chamberlain

doi:10.1117/12.582510

6 December 2004 The design of passively athermalized narrow- and wide-field-of-view infrared objectives for the OBSERVER unmanned air vehicle

Richard C. Simmons, Paul A. Manning, Trevor V. Chamberlain

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5612, Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and Applications; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.582510
Event: European Symposium on Optics and Photonics for Defence and Security, 2004, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

Some years ago QinetiQ introduced a short-range reconnaissance unmanned air vehicle (UAV), known as OBSERVER, which carried a visible three-camera sensor. To increase its versatility, a compatible infrared (IR) thermal imaging (TI) sensor was developed for the vehicle for operation in the 8-12mm waveband with a dual field of view function. The sensor incorporates a specially designed camera board, employing two IR lead scandium tantalate (PST) detectors based on UK un-cooled TI technology. Since no cooling engine is required for the detectors, the sensor module is very lightweight and hence well suited to its UAV application. So as to achieve the minimum possible payload for the vehicle, in addition to the lightweight detectors and electronics board, compact low mass optical solutions were devised for the camera objectives. These functioned at a relative aperture of f/1.0 and were designed to provide stable focus and imaging performance over a comparatively large temperature span (-10°C to + 50°C) to enable all weather operation. In order to achieve an athermalisation scheme devoid of elaborate electro-mechanical drives, thermally passive solutions were developed for the objectives in which the differing thermal characteristics of the components were designed to self-cancel optically. In this paper, the design and performance limitations of the optics are discussed and the procedure employed for establishing a thin lens pre-design for one of the objectives is described.

Citation Download Citation

Richard C. Simmons, Paul A. Manning, and Trevor V. Chamberlain "The design of passively athermalized narrow- and wide-field-of-view infrared objectives for the OBSERVER unmanned air vehicle", Proc. SPIE 5612, Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and Applications, (6 December 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.582510

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